Saint Augustine explained that the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New. In historic (Catholic) Christianity, Scripture is a unity and it points beyond itself to the principal revelation, the Logos Incarnate in Christ.
'If you believed [Moses] you would believe me, for it was of me that he wrote.’ – Jn. 5:46 (REB)
We read Scripture, then, neither for instruction, nor for inspiration. We read it to meet the reality of Jesus in the heart and in the symbol of the world.
How did Moses write of the Christ this day? Lessons for Morning Prayer are grumbling through Exodus with the Israelites for Lent.
When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there because it was bitter; that is why the place was called Marah. The people complained to Moses, asking, ‘What are we to drink?’ Moses cried to the LORD, who showed him a log which, when thrown into the water, made the water sweet. – Exod. 15:23-25 (REB)
The human being moves through the desert of the world, but is unable to draw life from the water of soul. The soul itself is bitter, permeated by the mineral flavor leaching in from the desert soil.
God provides a cleansing wood. Grown of earth and water itself, it absorbs or counteracts the bitterness. Christ is that cleansing wood who makes the water of soul-life drinkable.
Scripture quotations taken from the Revised English Bible, copyright © Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press 1989. All rights reserved.
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